Friday, June 1, 2012

Photos/Review: Radiohead @ Prudential Center

BROTHERS AND SISTERS! THE TIIIIIME HAS COME! The time has come to yell! To clap! To dance and shout and mooooove yo’selves. It is time to sacrifice yo' booty to the Path Train. It is time to revel 'round the New Jersey Transit.

Can you feel that? Can you feeeeeeel that?! That warm, adrenalined, nothingelsemattersinthewholewideworld afterglow that can only be felt in the aftermath of a show like this? It changes you. It amaaaazes you. It leaves you so satisfied but wanting so. much. more.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have gathered here to worship in the house of Radiohead. In scenic Newark, New Jersey.

Wait, what?
As science and human suffering have proven, Newark, New Jersey, is a desolate wasteland of forgotten dreams and 90's discarded fashions. There are few things that will motivate the general public to descend upon its bosom - seeing Radiohead perform live is just such an occasion. As we hobbled along the side of the Prudential Center, finally finding the correct line and cursing up to the heavens for such inadequate signage, tensions mounted. Hearts raced. Doves cried. Holy shitballs, all of our dreams were about to come true!

When the house dimmed just before 9 PM, the stage began to drip with lights and the sounds of The King of Limbs’ “Bloom” filled the arena. Blending the back lights with video projections and shifting imagery of the band, the visuals only added to the musical experience, leaving the audience entranced and captivated during this epic sermon of live rock. To hear tracks from TKOL live for the first time was fucking unreal. The jumpy guitar, double-drum intonation and infamous Thom Yorke wail were all in full force; we were just puddy in their hands. The intense, gutteral bass of "Feral" literally shook the entire arena, quaking us out of the ecstatic stupor "Karma Police" had put us in.

Hold up. "Karma Police", you say?! Receiving the award for OHMYGODISTHISREALLYHAPPENING freakout of the night, the audience sang so joyfully, so lovingly, along to every single note that you could barely hear the sounds of the band itself. Every line poured over all of us, and for those few moments, the stadium united in this splendid twelve-gauge, double-barreled, grenade-launcher of devotion.

To close the set, they gave us "Idioteque", a song that I have been dying, DYING, to see live since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Quick and catchy and schizophrenic in its beats, I was awed that a song I knew so well could still manage to catch me off guard. Mixing old with new, and debuting songs like "Identikit," Radiohead proves forever and again that they are there for the performance, for the joy of music-making, and for their fans that want exactly the same damn thing.

The first of two encores started off with "You and Whose Army?", followed by a driving, dance-your-face-off version of "Everything In Its Right Place". Looping the vocals and letting them hang heavily in the air, the band came back to the stage for a final time with "Give Up the Ghost", "The National Anthem" and "Reckoner". I have not stopped smiling since.

What makes seeing Radiohead live so incredible is the appreciation of a band that is truly committed to its fans. And not just committed, fucking thankful. For a group of such stature and talent to remain as gracious and generous and dedicated to its material is pretty much unheard of in these almost-zombie-apocalyptic times.

And for that, all any of us can say is, Amen.
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Photos shot by Trista Hou are below...

Disappointed like many. From the first line of Bloom it was clear Tom's voice was off, turns out he was sick. Screwing up Idioteque to the point where Tom was giving Jonny dirty looks throughout was a real buzzkill for all the stoners. Tom said "we'll play the hits when we're dead" I don't want the hits. I want the classics. And although they moved on, just like in Karma Police, the place would have erupted if anything from the Bends or OK Computer was played. They played many cuts earlier in the tour, I've seen them 14 times, this was the worst.